Patatracker

You've studied and learned everything you need to know, you've acquired your development software, and you are finally ready to start creating your own video games. You don't want to go big and decide to stick with 2D releases.

But while you are working on your first project, it crosses your mind that you never thought about the sounds in your game. If you have no idea what to do, then Patatracker can be a solution to your crisis.

This program is a simplified music tracker that you can use to create 16-bit audio material. Though you can produce things for your own enjoyment, the chiptunes are best suited for retro-style video games.

It may take you some time to get used to the commands and figure out how to come up with smooth sounds. You can also find a guide on the program's website to help you.

Once you've learned your way through it, you will likely be pleased with what you can create. You will mainly rely on your keyboard to work, but the mouse can be useful as well to move through the application faster.

You will notice straight away the UI is split in two between the smaller upper half and the larger lower half. The top one represents the Sequence and the one from the bottom is the Pattern.

The notes that you want to use for the song will be inputted in the lower half. And the top half is represented by the sequence of patterns to be played in each channel.

When creating a tune, you will have up to 8 channels to use. These can be utilized with any of the 7 synthesizers available: Pulse, Triangle, Noise, Sawtooth, Wavetable, Sampler and FM. You can also use up to four effects for your tunes.

Your creations can either be exported individually as WAV or MP3 files, or they can all be saved as an entire album.

There are sounds and songs out there that are copyright-free which you can use. But if you want your video game to be 100% original, then Patatracker will likely be a good option to help you with that.